Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Intra-Shiite Rivalries In Iraq As Kataib Hezbollah Raids ISCI Office

While much of the reporting on the Iraq focuses upon the
sectarian dimension within the country, mostly overlooked are the internal
Shiite divisions. This might actually be more important as these parties rule
the country. The rise of the Hashd al-Shaabi poses a long-term threat to the
Shiite establishment due to their widespread popularity. Recently Kataib
Hezbollah (KH) raided an office of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI)
in Basra, leading the latter to issue a blistering condemnation. More of these
confrontations are likely to happen in the future as these groups jockey for
position in post-Islamic State Iraq.

At the start of May 2015 Kataib Hezbollah and the Supreme
Council got into a spat that showed the intra-Shiite rivalries in Iraq. KH raided
an ISCI office in Basra, looting it and destroying equipment. KH had been
attacking a local Supreme Council official in Basra for corruption, which
seemed to be the precipitating factor. KH also used a friendly media outlet to critique
the head of the Supreme Council Ammar Hakim accusing him of denying the
terrorist charges against former Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi. In return, ISCI
attacked
KH for attempting to undermine reconciliation and the National Alliance, which
is the coalition that includes the Supreme Council and the Sadrists. A source
within the Supreme Council said that Kataib Hezbollah wanted to turn its
battlefield success into political power afterward, which would usurp the
National Alliance. The ISCI response was apt, because it laid bare the fear
that some Shiite parties are feeling about the Hashd. They are immensely
popular with the Iraqi street because of their fighting forte. They could
easily use this to promote themselves in upcoming elections. The parties that
would lose votes in the process would be the established Shiite religious
parties.

ISCI joins Moqtada al-Sadr as two political groups, which
have begun criticizing the Hashd. Sadr has attacked what he calls “brazen
militias” who have carried out killings of civilians, undermined the
government and do not follow the orders of the Iraqi Security Forces. He has
made these statements several times. This is due to his long time rivalry with
groups such as Asaib Ahl Al-Haq, but also because he like ISCI see the dilemma
the Hashd could pose to his movement. All of these groups are religiously based
and therefore are competing for the same constituency. The Badr Organization
and Asaib Ahl Al-Haq ran in the last parliamentary elections, and whose to say
how many of the new Hashd groups may decide to join the political process after
the insurgency is defeated. As a result it is likely that more of these
incidents will occur, and verbal spats will increase in frequency as these
organizations continue to fight the Islamic State on the battlefield, while
vying for support on the home front.

SOURCES

Al Arabiya, “Iraqi Hezbollah storm the headquarters of the
Supreme Council in Basra,” 5/11/15

Habib, Mustafa, “Whose Side Are They On?” Niqash, 5/14/15

Iraq News Network, “Hezbollah Brigades and the League of the
Righteous challenge sedition in Iraq,” 5/12/15

Iraq History Timeline

About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. I have written for the Jamestown Foundation, Tom Ricks’ Best Defense at Foreign Policy and the Daily Beast, and was responsible for a chapter in the book Volatile Landscape: Iraq And Its Insurgent Movements. My work has been published in Iraq via NRT, AK News, Al-Mada, Sotaliraq, All Iraq News, and Ur News all in Iraq. I was interviewed on BBC Radio 5, Radio Sputnik, CCTV and TRT World News TV, and have appeared in CNN, the Christian Science Monitor, The National, Columbia Journalism Review, Mother Jones, PBS’ Frontline, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Institute for the Study of War, Radio Free Iraq, Rudaw, and others. I have also been cited in Iraq From war To A New Authoritarianism by Toby Dodge, Imagining the Nation Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq by Harith al-Qarawee, ISIS Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassahn, The Rise of the Islamic State by Patrick Cocburn, and others. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com